With a split record for the season, the men’s soccer team looks to advance beyond .500.

The Toppers (1-1) get their chance tomorrow when they head to Boone, N.C. to compete in the Broyhill Inn Appalachian Classic tomorrow.

They face Appalachian State (2-0) at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow and Wofford (1-1) at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Even though the Toppers know who they are facing, the team is more concerned with its own game than the scouting reports for non-conference opponents, senior midfielder Joe German said.

If we (look at reports) at all, we’ll do it the day before a game,” German said. “But we rarely do. We like to play our own game.”

Freshman forward Brad Magnuson said when coach David Holmes goes over a scouting report he keeps it basic, telling the Toppers who their opponent’s strongest player is and the formations they primarily use.

Appalachian State will be a difficult opponent for Western because of its physical advantages, Holmes said.

“They are big and strong,” he said. “And they like to attack in the air. That’s one thing we struggled with at Belmont. We don’t match up too well against them, but it’ll be a good experience to travel into hostile territory. It’ll be a test of our physical strength.”

Offensively, senior forward Daniel Payne leads the Toppers with two of their three team goals, scoring once in each of the first two games.

On defense, freshman goalkeeper Pat Rickman recorded a two-save shut out against Birmingham-Southern and made four saves against Belmont.

Appalachian State junior midfielder Sean Sassano was the MVP of last weekend’s Radford Tournament in Radford, Va., which Appalachian State won.

While the Toppers don’t have the physical size of other Division I teams, they do have speed and depth.

“We’re a short team,” Magnuson said. “So we need to keep the ball on the ground, play quick and move the ball a lot.”

Since the team only has time for two training sessions this week, they will spend time reviewing, Holmes said.

“We’d like to create more scoring chances from flow of play,” he said. “We scored three goals last weekend, and I think we can improve on that.

“Next week will be a time for coaching and teaching. We’ll have four days in a row after our day off on Monday. Fortunately, we have healthy guys that are coming together as a team, on and off the field.”

German said he happy with how much the Toppers improved from last Friday’s loss at Belmont, to Sunday’s home victory against Birmingham-Southern.

“I was really impressed with how the team stayed together mentally after the loss,” he said. “I think if we keep mentally together this weekend, we’ll be fine.”